Lawyer in French terror case won't use videos

The lawyer for the father of a slain French terrorism suspect said Thursday she won't use videos allegedly in her possession to prove the wrongful death of her client's son.

Zahia Mokhtari represents the Algerian father of Mohammed Merah, who was accused of killing seven people in southern France earlier this year.

Mokhtari has sued the French state, asserting that police shot Merah after a 32-hour standoff to keep him silent about his work for the intelligence services, but she has never publicly produced the videos.

Her decision comes in the wake of a French TV station broadcasting excerpts of audio recordings of Merah's final negotiations with police before they killed him.

Mokhtari said the broadcast was an attempt to damage her case. French authorities have said they will investigate the leaks.

"Since the French ministries of justice and the interior denounced this video (sic) of TF1, we support them," she told The Associated Press. "For our part, we have decided to not use our video because we have other arguments that will prove the truth in this affair."

She added that she was ready to send the videos to French justice as long as they promised they would not be used by the media.

While the suit does not name anyone specifically, the family appears to be accusing the elite RAID police force of intentionally killing Merah instead of capturing him alive and letting him speak out.

French television station TF1 aired audio recordings Sunday night that it said were of Merah talking to police during a standoff in March in Toulouse that ended with him being shot dead.

Police say Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman, killed three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three paratroopers in attacks that jolted France's national psyche and revived fears about extremist violence.

In the recordings, the suspect describes traveling to Pakistan and Afghanistan and explains why he won't surrender to police.

Mokhtari also said that she had sent a message to the families of the victims asking for them to work with her to reveal the truth about what had happened.

The shootings at the Jewish school and of the paratroopers were the worst terrorist attacks in France since the 1990s and have revived concerns about violence by homegrown Islamist radicals.